mindfulness

I am the worst photographer in the history of time (and also modest and not at all prone to hyperbole) so the credit for this picture of cherry blossoms is shared by Mother Nature and my Android phone (with a small nod to my kids for teaching me how to use the phone).

I took this picture of blossoming cherry trees on February 26 in northern California along the walking/running/biking trail near my house. I often see people tromping along this trail, faces tense, arms in motion, grimly determined to get that workout in. With their heads down, slogging along with not even a glance at the spectacular show Mother Nature is putting on. No judgment here, I’ve been that person, putting my time in on the trail just to check it off my To Do list, but I’m on the hunt for joy these days (and free joy is my favorite kind) so I’m trying to slow it all down a bit (you know, in between my jobs as chauffeur, cook, laundress, coach, nurse, butterer of pancakes, and did I mention chauffeur? Basketball, soccer, baseball, softball, these things all have practices and guess how kids get to practices?)

We have lived in our house for, yikes, fifteen years now and one year, in a flurry of child rearing and work, I missed the blooming of the cherry trees. Oh, I knew it was happening, I saw them as a blur in my windshield as I marched along the ant trails I follow day in and day out. I kept meaning to go for a walk and see them up close. But by the time I actually got out to the trail to see this particular trio of pretty ladies all that remained was a sprinkling of faded petals littering the grass below. In my rush to Get Things Done I had missed one of my favorite parts of spring and now I would have to wait an entire year for the chance to see it again. An entire year.

I am in a busy phase of life (maybe they are all busy) and most of us have a To Do list that is longer than the day. So it is all about choices, which task to do (brush teeth), which activity to skip (we missed the Science fair this year), do I fit in a quick trip to the grocery store or play a game of Horse as my daughter is begging me to and just have breakfast for dinner again? I would like to sometimes choose joy, or fun, or a moment with one of my children over being an efficient family manager. The cherry blossoms have become my version of Cat’s in the Cradle (the Harry Chapin song of a father who keeps putting off spending time with his son, and his son who grows up just like him). For me, the lesson of the cherry blossoms is that life doesn’t have a pause button, it moves on with or without you, and far faster than you expect.

So I made time to walk the dog past the blooming cherry trees (still feeling a bit of the ‘hurry-up-and-slow-down’ but I was out there) and then, too quickly, the blooms were gone. This left me a bit sad, it would be so long until they bloomed again. And then I opened an email from my sister who lives in New Jersey, sending me a picture of her backyard on the first day of spring (March 20).

Talk about Fifty Shades of Gray, and not the fun ones.

First. Day. Of. Spring.

It kind of put it all in perspective. So what, my cherry blossoms are gone. At least I’m not on my 25th day of school closings. And look what is blooming in my backyard now?

Lilac!

So, yes, I want to live in the moment, enjoy the blossoms or the story my daughter is telling me or the sunset my son ran inside to get me to watch. But I also want to let go and move on to the next moment, the next set of blooms. I want to trust that more good moments are on their way and not cling to the ones that have passed. As George Santayana said, “To be interested in the changing seasons is . . . a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.’’

(And for those of you living in New Jersey, here’s hoping the changing of the seasons comes, like, yesterday.)